I'd like to start with the floor plan. hopefully everything will make sense to you now!
The bedroom upstairs is over the parlour and is the same shape and size. (Bar the height of course)
So today was another busy day. The ceiling in the parlour was taken down single-handedly by our friend, although not before removing all the little picture hooks which I will attempt to clean. (Many layers of paint)
So today was another busy day. The ceiling in the parlour was taken down single-handedly by our friend, although not before removing all the little picture hooks which I will attempt to clean. (Many layers of paint)
The demolition revealed some epic cobwebs and some interesting looking floor joists. What we assume are the original joists were present, as well as some additional timbers tacked on to each one. Not all of the timbers actually spanned the width of the room so were effectively weighing down the ceiling as apposed to supporting it! The original joists are partially rounded and fit into the wall on the west side and sit on the partition wall on the east side of the room. As you can imagine they will all have to be removed and replaced. Éanna is enjoying the extra head height though!
Time for lunch!
Also today we took out the larder cupboard in the centre room. It was very rotten at the bottom especially. We used paint remover on all the hinges etc in the house including the doors of the larder and removed them. If we can clean them up we might use them for a cupboard later on.
My sister did great work today including taking all the timber off from around the remaining windows. She looks like she was born with a nail bar in her hand! Anything along the back/north side of the house has been fairly rotten and easy to remove but in contrast any timber at the front/south side of the house has been much more difficult as it is dryer. So fair play to Sis for getting it all off!
As you can see from fig.12 and fig.13 above there is a colour difference in the stone between the front and back wall. the back wall is much darker. We are presuming this is damp, again due to the raised level of the ground at the back of the house.
Our last job was to take away the stove and investigate the fireplace in the centre room. It would appear that many moons ago they blocked up the very large fire place to put in a regular open fire with the fire side cupboards. They then went on to block this up further and put in the stove. Behind the tiles was a sheet of foiled back plasterboard, the only piece of plasterboard we found so far. It should be noted that plasterboard cannot be put in an ordinary builder's skip. It will have to be brought to a civic waste and recycling centre. Éanna tried his best but I think we might finally need a little more muscle in the form of a Jackhammer!
A few photos of the view from the top of the garden to finish a very productive few days!